1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to naturally based cleaners, especially heavy duty cleaners, such as laundry detergents and soil and stain removers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cleaning formulations have progressed and created a large chemical industry devoted to developing new synthetic surfactants and solvents to achieve ever improving cleaning compositions for the consumer. Because of a desire to use renewable resources, natural based cleaners are gaining increasing interest. Most of these cleaners contain only some natural ingredients. One difficulty in formulating natural based cleaners is achieving acceptable consumer performance with a limited number of natural components compared to highly developed formulations using synthetic surfactants and solvents.
Typical cleaning formulations require multiple surfactants, solvents, and builder combinations to achieve adequate consumer performance. Because of the increased cost of synthetic sources for cleaning agents and a concern for the environment, there is renewed focus on using materials that are naturally sourced.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,759,382 to Ahmed discloses a concentrated liquid detergent composition containing a primary surfactant system alkylbenzene sulfonate and another sulfate or sulfonate and a secondary surfactant system containing an α-sulfomethyl ester or alkyl polyglucoside, where the alkyl polyglucoside is a C8 to C16 alkylpolyglucoside, a C8 to C10 alkylpolyglucoside, a C8 to C14 alkylpolyglucoside, a C12 to C14 alkylpolyglucoside, or a C12 to C16 alkylpolyglucoside. U.S. Pat. No. 6,686,323 to Nilsson et al. discloses C6, C8 and C10 alkylpolyglucosides as surfactant for mud removal in oil drilling. U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,820 to Cutler et al. discloses agricultural formulations containing C8 to C10 alkylpolyglucosides, C9 to C11 alkylpolyglucosides, and 2-ethyl-1-hexylglucoside. U.S. Pat. App. 20060172889 to Barnes et al. discloses agricultural formulations containing C7 to C18 alkylpolyglucosides. U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,960 to Ruhr et al. discloses C6 and C8 alkylpolyglucosides in highly alkaline formulations with amine oxides and alcohol alkoxylates. PCT App. WO 00/49095 to Landeweer et al. discloses C6 to C10 alkylpolyglucosides with glycol ethers such as butyl diglycol.
Prior art compositions do not combine effective cleaning with a minimum number of ingredients, especially with natural ingredients. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning composition that overcomes the disadvantages and shortcomings associated with prior art cleaning compositions.